Pages of Interest

Monday, July 1, 2013

Interview with Elena Dillon

Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?

Crushing is a YA
Romantic Suspense set on an fictional island near Charleston, South
Carolina.Rory, the main character,
is the daughter of a wealthy Southern family who have planned out her life for
her.When her troubled, childhood
crush moves back to town she has to decide if it’s worth upsetting her family
and her life to be with him. She’s not sure he’s a good risk.On top of that a friend goes missing
and she ends up in the middle of a very dangerous situation.

Have you
ever had a minor character evolve into a major one? Did that change the
direction of the novel at all?

Yes.In this
book Dominic was not supposed to be such a big character and he turned out to
be a nice guy.I was originally
going to have him be a jerk but he wanted nothing to do with that! He was
difficult to get to stay on track. His voice was loud and Rory’s other love
interest, Gage, was difficult to get to know and took a lot of prodding to get
him to be front and center.I had
to be sure I didn’t let Dominic’s bold, loud personality overshadow Gage’s.

Did you
try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?

No for now I’m happy to continue being a self published
author.

What
factors influenced your decision to self-publish your book(s)?

I like the freedom and I’m a bit of a control freak.I love being able to choose my own
cover, etc.I don’t have the
patience to wait eighteen months to have my books published either.This works for me.

What is
your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?

I definitely need silence. I think I’m too easily
distractible to be able to listen to music.Also I think it might affect the mood of the scene I was
writing.I’m easily swayed. Lol. I
get in my office by eight every morning and I’m pretty much there all day.I set word count goals and I have lists
of all that needs to be done.

Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

Absolutely. She does a critique first, then first round
edits, then clean up and proofing.Then I send it to another service for proofing again and then yet
another for formatting.

What have
you’ve learned during your self-publishing journey?

To just keep writing. Not to get distracted by all the other
stuff people sayyou “should”
be doing. Writing is the most important thing.Balance your time. It’s not easy doing it all yourself but
it can be done.

Besides
Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?

What kinds
of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for
promoting your book(s)?

I have my blog and I’m on most of the Social Media sites as
Elena Dillon. I’m pretty active on FB, Twitter and Google+.Pinterest is my addiction though.I can’t go on there if I have stuff to
get done.Two hours will go by
without me even noticing.

What’s
next for you?

I’m in the middle of writing my third book which will take
place in the Breathe universe. It should be out before the end of the year.

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